How to Avoid Mosquito Bites and the Diseases They Carry

Chasing Life

CNN

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.4 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Man’s deadliest predator takes more than a million lives each year and is no bigger than your fingernail. To mark mosquito season, history professor Dr. Timothy Winegard sits down with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to unpack how we can use lessons from the past to fight mosquitoes in the future. Plus, find out how you can make your blood a little less appetizing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You might be sitting in the park or by the pool.
0:05.1	You could be on a hike, maybe in your car even when you hear it.
0:09.7	There's a mosquito somewhere nearby.
0:12.0	No!
0:13.6	Some think of them as just another summer pest, but truth is, humanity has been at war with mosquitoes since the very beginning.
0:22.1	They have been the biggest killer of humanity across our existence.
0:27.2	And there's a lot more at stake than just itchy bumps.
0:30.7	You remove that mosquito species and the pathogen evolves and now this mosquito species,
0:35.3	which didn't transmit pathogens before, can now transmit
0:38.2	malaria.
0:39.3	That's Dr. Timothy Weingard.
0:41.4	He's a historian and professor at Colorado Mesa University.
0:45.2	He's also the author of a fascinating book called The Mosquito, a human history of our deadliest
0:50.9	predator.
0:52.1	Today, he's joining me to talk not just about their annoying and deadly past, but also
0:57.2	how to avoid mosquito bites and the diseases they may carry, and even why some people are more
1:02.9	attractive to mosquitoes than others.
1:05.2	Here's a little hint.
1:06.3	It might have something to do with your blood type.
1:09.2	I'll tell you all about it.
1:10.7	I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent.
1:14.5	And this is Chasing Life.
	...

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